SA face Afghanistan in hope of breaking World Cup semis curse
|Published
Most runs: SA’s Quinton de Kock. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP
South Africa’s Proteas have played in seven semifinals, but have not yet made it to the final of an International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup to date.
Out to rewrite history at 2.30am on Thursday morning, captain Aiden Markram and his teammates take on the tournament’s surprise package Afghanistan in their third T20 World Cup final-four appearance - the others were in 2009 and 2014.
SA have also played in five ODI World Cup semifinals without success. But unbeaten heading into the match at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad and Tobago, there is a sense that South Africa can make the final of the tournament this time around.
They will, however be wary of the team that beat Australia in the second group stage to make the semis.
Afghanistan have proven that they are not to be taken lightly with two of the tournament’s top three runs scorers (Rahmanullah Gurbaz in first place with 281 runs in seven innings at an average of 40.14 and Ibrahim Zadran with 229 runs at 3.71 per innings), as well as two of the top three leading wicket takers (Fazalhaq Farooqi with 16 in first and Rashid Khan with 14 in third) in their team.
For SA, Quinton de Kock has the most runs (199 at 28.42 per innings), with Anrich Nortje bagging the most wickets (11).
#T20WorldCup Semi-Final | 🇿🇦🏏🇦🇫 #SAvAFG
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) June 25, 2024
⏰ Ready to ignite the passion in the match against Afghanistan, the Proteas have their eyes on the ultimate prize! 🏆🏏🇿🇦🌍
Get your T20 replica shirt on: https://t.co/kxbWFYFOsH#OutOfThisWorld #WozaNawe #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/oiCjZPhHEM
Proteas coach Rob Walter knows they’ll need their X-factor players to shine in this match if they want to rewrite history, saying: “In T20 cricket having X-factor players really does make a difference.
“If you look through our players list, we’ve got a number of those in the team. Each guy in this team has shown his ability to impact the T20 format of the game, so I don’t think it will be dissimilar for any other team if they look at their makeup to be fair.
“But I believe that there are guys in there that are world class T20 impact players and if they do manage to impact the game it gives you a good chance of winning.”